Electronic Dictionary

　　I often forget Chinese characters I know very well. Names often don't come up promptly even though I know his/her faces. My memory is surely going downhill. My answer is to carry an electronic dictionary --- always in a pocket of my white coat or in my personal bag. I used to have one, but it 's now my second daughter's, so I got a new one. I'll start a new chapter of my life in August, and this electronic dictionary will be of use in my new job.
　　Japan's school and business year starts in spring, and lots of things relevant to a fresh start are newly rolled out in this season. Naturally electronic dictionaries come up from various makers, and consequently, prices of older types generally go down, so I waited for the new models going on the market, then I bought a 2019 model of an electronic dictionary. The price went down by more than $100 than a few weeks ago as I had expected.
　　Taking carrying it into account, I placed importance on its lightness and chose one shown in the following picture. As you can see, it's small and thin, but it has several dozen dictionaries of English, Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian and Korean, and to top it off a set of encyclopedias, textbooks for learning the above languages, then more than 3000 works of Japanese literature. How about its usability?
　　This dictionary is really handy and above my expectations. In case of print media, you search words only by index, but in case of the electronic dictionaries, other search measures are offered: You can spot sentences in which your target word is used (Example Sentence Search). Additionally you can find a word from the whole dictionary (Full Text Search). Moreover you can use plural dictionaries at the same time. If you don't understand what a dictionary says, you can switch dictionaries promptly. I often use this function and compare the expressions or explanations between my Longmann English-Japanese dictionary and Longmann or Oxford English-English dictionaries. I can feel the subtle difference or nuance in such a way.
　　I originally bought this dictionary to rebuild or reinforce my Japanese skills against my aging, but I understood that this dictionary can be a strong and reliable aide in reading and writing English. This small gadget will always be by my side.
　　Model conversation sentences in Chinese, German, French,,,, are also recorded. Those sentences specialize in travels and pronunciations are also offered. In encyclopedia, you can hear even the sound of animals.
　　The price is acceptable.The total price of only four dictionaries at hand (Longmann English-English, English-Japanese, and Crown German-Japanese, Japanese-English) is higher than that of the electronic dictionary.
　　How about demerits? A single weak point is lack of at-a-glance visibility. If you look for a word in the dictionary on the paper basis, some words listed near your target word come in your eye. However, electronic dictionaries set off lots of merits against such a minor inconvenience.

(Vocabulary)
set sth (off) against sth　釣り合わせる、相殺する、埋め合わせる
to set off one's merits against one's faults　長所をもって短所を補う
to judge sth by comparing good or positive qualities with bad or negative ones
Set against the benefits of the new technology, there is also a strong possibility that jobs will be lost.

最近漢字をよく忘れる。人の顔は覚えていても名前が出てこないなど明らかに記憶力が落ちている。歳のせいだろう。それで電子辞書を持ち歩くことにした。白衣のポケットやボディバッグに入れて常に。以前所有していた電子辞書は次女に奪われたので新しく購入。８月から全く新しい分野の職に就く。そのためにも必要と考えた。毎年春、日本は新学期を迎える。そのため電子辞書の新型も発売される。当然旧型の価格は下がるので、新型が発売されるのを待って２０１９年型を購入した。

持ち運びを考えて、軽さを重視。写真のように小さなものだが、この中に数十冊の辞書、語学勉強用教材、百科事典、更に文学作品が３０００点以上。元々ドイツ語辞書も内蔵されているのだが、さらに専門的な２冊をオプションで追加。さて使い勝手はどうか。使ってみると、ただただ、素晴らしいの一言。紙媒体だと単語は見出し語として探すだけだが、電子辞書だとその単語が例文に含まれる場合に見つけ出す例文検索、さらに辞書全体からその単語を探し出す全文検索、さらに複数の辞書から同時に検索する複数辞書横断検索も可能。

漢字忘れに対して、日本語能力補強のために買ったのだが、英文読解や英文作成に絶大な助けになると思う。シナ語やドイツ語、フランス語、スペイン語など旅行に必要な会話本も含まれており、なんとそれらは発音も教えてくれる。発音について、従来は発音記号を学ぶ必要があったが、この辞書は発音してくれる。百科事典に載っている動物、鳥などの鳴き声も聞くことが出来る。手元にある辞書、ロングマン英和、英英、クラウン独和、和独、この４冊でこの電子辞書の価格を超える。スマホと同様、常に携行する手放せないガジェットだ。

欠点は無いのか？それは、一覧性に欠けるということくらいか。辞書を引くとその前後の単語も目に入るが、電子辞書だとそれはない。が、そんな欠点など十分に消してしまうほどの利点が電子辞書にはあると思う。